please empty your brain below
Some of the humour of Max Gill's map is now lost on the current generation.

It's frustrating to wonder what DID happen on the Old Kent Road,or thereabouts, between '3 and 4 of an afternoon'.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/clive.billson/McGillWonderground/McGillWonderground.html

Anybody care to hazard a guess ?

Petras409 | 03.11.13 - 10:04 a.m. | #

Thank you for this DG, especially for the McGill maps and the Stanfords link. Christmas gifts for my homesick London boy sorted.

misspiggy | 03.11.13 - 10:13 a.m. | #

I will never get to like St. Pancras station, the hotel at the front is OK and was worth keeping, but the drafty old train shed should have long gone.

John | 03.11.13 - 10:14 a.m. | #

Well, John, you'd have hated the Lego version, which kept the drafty train shed at the back and recreated the merely-OK hotel in plastic. Thank goodness you didn't go and see it.

diamond geezer | 03.11.13 - 11:21 a.m. | #

Maybe John would have liked some doors at the end of the station platforms to keep the cold and the draughts out such as they used to have at the now defunct Merry Hill Shopping Centre monorail link in Birmingham? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbu74UEKd28. This monorail was a great way to get from the remote car park right into the heart of the shopping centre – what a shame it closed as I loved it!

Happy Harry (in the UK) | 03.11.13 - 1:21 p.m. | #

The PDF link towards the end of the MacDonald Gill section is broken.

dg writes: Sorry, usual pdf issue. Now fixed, ta.

swirlythingy | Homepage | 03.11.13 - 7:58 p.m. | #

Thanks for the reminder about the model made last year of the Olympic Park.
I remember seeing it when I went up to see some of the events taking place around St Katharine Docks, and the smile it brought at realising that the cute little blobs at different points around the BMX track were actually meant to represent a bunch of riders in a race.
As you say yourself (as regards the Colosseum) it's surprising how less really can sometimes appear to be more!

RogerW | 03.11.13 - 10:19 p.m. | #

I did know of the Birmingham Mono rail system and the station train doors.
I imagine that old stations like St.Pancras were built with high ceilings and much exposure to the open air because the trains which waited in them at the time were steam, and ventilation made for less air pollution within the building. Now steam is not used this amount of airflow is not required.
St. Pancras always seems very cold and drafty, something which I do not notice at other stations, ie Victoria, Liverpool Street, Waterloo. It maybe the shape of St.Pancras and I think its opening faces North where cold winds come from.

John | 04.11.13 - 7:29 a.m. | #

Do you like Lego, John?

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.11.13 - 7:34 a.m. | #

Hadn't been over to Ealing for a long time; so pleased I got there before the Max Gill exhibition closed ... and John Soane's country house was a bonus.

Tony | 04.11.13 - 3:35 p.m. | #

I've spent quite a few days working on St Pancras station and in winter it does get really cold (Kings Cross is always warmer). Fumes from the EMT diesel engines left idling also can quickly fill the space at all levels. In producing such a temple to consumerism which is the main function of the trainshed these days it was clearly not a priority to provide any form of heated (or non heated!) waiting room either!

Nicks | 04.11.13 - 7:37 p.m. | #

As an Ealingite in Exile, may I respectfully point out that it's Pitzhanger Manor with a 'z' (as opposed to Pitshanger Park, Pitshanger Lane etc)?

dg writes: Sorry, I do that every time.

Michael Dembinski | Homepage | 06.11.13 - 10:29 a.m. | #











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